Marco Mama has retired with immediate effect after 12-year career

Ex-Bristol back-rower Marco Mama has decided to retire from playing two months after being released by Worcester at the end of the 2020/21 season. The 30-year-old Nigerian-born, Zimbabwe-raised forward played for five-and-a-half seasons at Sixways after he initially joined the Warriors on loan for much of the 2015/16 campaign before ending that season back at Bristol where he made his pro ranks breakthrough. 

It was June 10 when Mama was named as one of the 20 players who would be leaving Worcester as new coach Jonathan Thomas overhauled his squad and the back-rower has now decided it is best to quit player rather than find another club.    

Writing on Instagram, Mama said: "The time has come to hang up the boots. I have absolutely loved my twelve years of professional rugby, but there comes a point where the reward from the game is diminished and the risks are more apparent. 

"One thing I do know about rugby is you are either in it or not, so now is the time to step away and enjoy everything life has to offer outside of the game. I will look back with pure fondness at the emotional highs and lows. It is a special game and it has shaped me into the man I am today.

"Thank you to all at @bristolbearsrfc and @WorcsWarriors that have contributed and supported my career during my time there. Over and out."

Thomas described his Worcester overhaul plans to RugbyPass in May. “We have been quite ruthless in the process. It’s never ideal to have that volume of players off-contract at one time and leaving, 20 players or whatever it is, so that has certainly been really tough, some tough conversations especially when I have got a huge amount of respect and care a lot about the players that are leaving… but we have done really well.

“We have got a couple more players that we would like to bring in but when you look at the whole thing we are pretty pleased with recruitment, with what we have got coming in next year. I’m really excited about the squad we will have. It will be a smaller squad than this year but we don’t mind going with a smaller squad because we have got some good, young homegrown players coming through."